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Published: March 7th 2007
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Tank of the liberation
In front of the Reunification Palace. The bus ride from Chau Doc to Saigon was hell. We were literally stuffed into a tiny minibus that kept stopping to pick up more people. Aside from the several Vietnamese in the bus, we shared the vehicle with an english couple (sort of) and a dutch guy. Among the many things we did to keep ourselved entertained was a game that involved going around in a circle saying how many US states, beer brands, colors, flowers, etc. that you could name. If the person next to you didn't believe that you could name 10 (for example) beer brands, they would say BS and you'd have to prove them wrong (or right). It was actually a great game, but I sat next to the dutch guy, and no matter the topic he was always able to name enough items. It was frustrating to say the least. We stopped around 10 for dinner at a place where no one spoke english. We all got the same food, which was basically soup with noodles and mystery meat. We suspect the meat was liver, and it sure tasted foul so I just stuck to the noodles and the raw egg they cracked in my
Mmm...frog
About to put some frog in my mouth soup.
We got in to Saigon around midnight and managed to negociate a good deal over to the backpacker area. We walked around a little bit before the three of us found a reasonable guest house where we settled in and crashed for the night. The plan was to wake up early the next morning to catch the Superbowl (well, it was my plan), but we all overslept and so we headed down to breakfast in time to catch the 4th quarter of a rather boring, rainy game.
After going back to the guest house for a bit, we set off to explore the city. Eventually we turned up at the Laos embassy, but it was closed for lunch. We headed over to the Chinese consul, but it only processes visas in the morning so I would have to come back the next day. Next, we went over to the War Remnants museum where we had a great, although a bit expensive, lunch just adjacent to the museum. After eating, Mickan headed over to try to get her atm card back (an atm ate it in the morning) and Jossan and I headed in to the museum.
The museum is dedicated to the Vietnam (American) War, and it's got some cool stuff, and some pretty horrific stuff. I'd read that there is a distinct bias against the Americans, but for the most part the museum used international sources such as the AP to document the war. They had some great American hardware from the war, along with a somber room dedicated to the victims of our Agent Orange campaign. The photos in that room were appaling, and it really makes you wonder what our government was thinking, and how the leaders at that time were able to sleep at night. Plenty of the photos they had were from the international press so it wasn't just propaganda. I'm glad I saw the museum, and I think the Vietnamese did a good job showing a side of the war that doesn't get enough press. Of course there was nothing about how our captured servicemen were treated, but I didn't really expect that...
After seeing the musuem we met up with Mickan and then headed back to the guest house. We used the internet for a bit, and I got in touch with an old friend from high school,
Anh. Anh is living in HCMC now and so we arranged to meet up later that evening for coffee. The three of us met Anh and two of her friends at a really cool coffee shop, not far from the Laos embassy. We had a great time catching up, but Anh had to go to work the next day so we arranged to meet up again and then Mickan, Jossan, and I took off for an Irish pub that was nearby. I was really hoping to get some Guinness, but alas the pub had none on tap and they were out of cans. I settled for Amber stout, which is actually a decent beer made by the company that does Tiger. We sat and listened to the live band for maybe 45 minutes before walking back to the backpacker area. We tracked down a bia hoi (literally, fresh beer) place on a street corner and spent the next hour drinking extremely cheap beer. These bia hoi places are sprinkled all over Vietnam, and they're a great institution. For about 2000 dong (12.5 US cents) you get a glass of (sometimes decent) beer. Unsurprisingly, I had quite a bit of beer
before we called it a night.
The next day I woke up without a hangover (not sure how that worked out) and we grabbed breakfast before heading over to get some visas. I left the girls at the Laos consulate while I headed over to see about a Chinese visa. I got the form, but when I discovered that it would take 4 days to process the visa I left and decided that I would just pick it up in Hanoi. As we'll see later, that was a mistake! I met back up with the girls and then we headed to a restaurant to have lunch with Anh. We had a lovely lunch, and afterwards I went to see the Reunification Palace. The palace, which was renamed as soon as Saigon was retaken, had some cool stuff but I found it to be a bit boring. I hung out there for maybe an hour before meeting up with the girls again at one of the local markets. We hung out for a bit and then split up again and I headed over to the "war surplus" market, which turned out to be a guy's paradise of power tools and war surplus materials. Unfortunately, almost all of the war stuff is actually cheap reproductions so it was a bit of a letdown. All the same, it was fun browsing and I got some patches before heading back to the guest house.
After a bit, we headed off to meet up with Anh again, this time at a VERY local restaurant. We wanted to try some local specialties and we were not disappointed. We ended up having snake-head fish, ox tail, and a frog dish. All of the food was surprisingly good, although the ox-tail took some getting used to! I also have to say that frog tastes like chicken, but has way too many bones that detract from the experience.
After eating, we headed over to a coffeeshop where we stayed for one drink before going to the club Apocalypse Now. Mickan and Jossan were ecstatic about the club and so Anh and I sat chatting while they danced to the thumping music. Eventually, Anh had to go and so I got to talking to a kiwi dude for a bit before the girls dragged me on to the dance floor for an hour or so until we decided to catch a cab home. It was a great night thanks to Anh and her friend!
The next morning, we were off to Dalat, so stay tuned for that entry.
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